Keeping On

On Monday I went to see ‘Cezanne – Portraits of a Life’ at the Cambridge Picturehouse. It’s a Screen Arts production based on the exhibition showing at the National Portrait Gallery. Fascinating insights into an extraordinary body of work, if a little over-analysed at times. Cezanne had the wonderful life affirming view that he got better as an artist as he got older, right to the end, and died painting.

That’s one of the gifts of the arts: you don’t have to retire, to give up. But to keep getting better, that’s a challenge. Is my photography better now than it was 10, 20, 30 years ago? I’m not sure (and I’m not the best person to judge). It would be nice to think that it is. If it isn’t, worse would be for it not to be different. Well, I believe it is that: a photojournalistic approach has morphed into something that might be called conceptual, for want of a better word. I’m content with that – for now.